U.S. Sen. Jon Tester has introduced legislation in hopes of preserving and improving mail service in rural America. The bill, called the Rural Postal Act, comes just two months after the U.S. Postal Service reported a net loss of $1.5 billion during the first three months of 2015. The service also handled 420 million fewer…

My mother had an unshakable faith in the power of public education. With her encouragement, the first job I took after college was teaching at my childhood elementary school.

I have been actively involved in public education my entire life – as a student, teacher, school board member, parent, grandparent and now a U.S. senator.

So when the Senate had the chance to undo some of the damage caused by the No Child Left Behind Act, I was proud to stand with a bipartisan group of 81 senators and overhaul this broken system. That’s why I voted for the Every Child Achieves Act last week.

This bill reforms education policy for the first time in 13 years – affecting millions of American families.

While I don’t agree with everything in the bill, it’s a big step forward.

Most importantly, the bill returns decision making to the local level, giving school boards, teachers and parents control over students’ education.

The bill also moves us away from using testing as the primary measure of a student’s performance – another No Child Left Behind policy that failed.

The 819th RED HORSE Squadron will remain at Malmstrom Air Force Base, according to a press release from U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) on Tuesday. The Air Force had been considering moving the RED HORSE unit from Malmstrom to a base in Guam. Tester met with Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James on…

Thanks to the federal education law No Child Left Behind, American children starting kindergarten today can expect to take 17 federally required tests by the time they graduate. Congress started debate last week on bills that will decide whether the next generation of American students faces the same gauntlet of tests. What happens in Washington,…

Teddy Roosevelt recognized that there are places in this country so special that they shouldn’t be developed, so he helped set aside these lands for future generations. As a Montanan, I know that for the last 50 years, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has been the best tool the American people have had to…

Speakers at the Capitol on Friday celebrated the newest addition to the Lewis and Clark National Forest by rallying behind the uncertain future of the fund that made the acquisition a reality. Gov. Steve Bullock, Sen. Steve Daines, Sen. Jon Tester and USDA Undersecretary Robert Bonnie were among those who supported reauthorizing the Land and…

When it comes to federal oversight of students, Montana’s senators both seem to agree changes are needed to the laws that dictate the federal No Child Left Behind standards. This week and next, the U.S. Senate is expected to debate the merits of the Every Child Achieves Act, the Senate’s proposal for re-authorization of the…

Last week, officials at the Office of Personnel Management temporarily pulled the plug on an online tool used to submit background-check forms because a security review had turned up an unspecified vulnerability. Now, a senator who sits on a key subcommittee is pressing the agency’s inspector general to examine other potential vulnerabilities in OPM’s entire…

Montana senator Jon Tester will hold his 15th Small Business Opportunity Workshop in Missoula on July 17. The theme of the workshop will be about helping small businesses in the state “hit their stride” and gain the tools needed to grow and expand. The free workshop is scheduled to take place at 8 a.m. Friday,…

For the third year in a row, Montana has been named the top state in the country for entrepreneurial activity by the Kauffman Foundation’s Index of Startup Activity. According to the report, there are 540 new entrepreneurs for every 100,000 adults in a given month in Montana, up from 490 last year. Montana significantly outpaced…